New Delhi: ‘Mirzapur’ fame Pankaj Tripathi’s wife Mridula recently discussed the cultural challenges they've faced for the last 20 years of their marriage. In a candid interview posted to the YouTube channel Conversations with Atul, Mridula revealed how her mother-in-law still doesn't accept her.
Mridula talked about the difficulties she and Pankaj Tripathi had as a result of their love marriage, which took place at a period when marriages like this were looked down upon. She said, "In our culture, it is unacceptable for a woman to be married into a family of a lower stature if another woman has already been married into a family of a higher stature. And because my sister-in-law had been married above her station into my family, I couldn't be married into their family, which was considered of a lower stature."
Mridula and Tripathi first crossed paths during the wedding of her brother, who was marrying the actor's sister. Mridula was in the ninth grade and Pankaj was in 11th grade at the time. They started dating shortly after, although they were still worried that Mridula's "higher social standing" might cause their families to reject them.
When Mridula told her father about her connection with Pankaj, she described it as "a tehelka, a bawaal (a ruckus)."
Mridula on Her Mother-in-law
Although the majority of the relatives accepted their marriage, Pankaj Tripathi's mother's side of the family has some misgivings. Mridula admitted that her mother-in-law has yet to accept her into the family, saying, "My mother-in-law hasn't accepted me to this day for the reasons I mentioned earlier. She's still upset about this intermingling. But what can we do about it now?".
Pankaj and Mridula tied the knot on January 15, 2004. Their daughter, Aashi Tripathi, was born in 2006.